Note: distances (in miles) are calculated as the
crow flies; it may be further by road or on foot.

Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Alf Beard

St Andrew's Church, Woolaston

St Andrew's Church,
Church Lane,
Woolaston, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or had) a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its
graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built
after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1131, and we understand it is still open.

According to the
British Listed Buildings St Andrew's church was in the grant of Tintern Abbey from 1131. It stands in a roughly circular churchyard, suggesting a very early site development.
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Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes it as "an ancient building of stone in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, south aisle, south porch, organ chamber, and a massive embattled (western) tower containing 5 bells. The arcade, dividing the nave and aisle, has double shafts of polished marble, with foliated capitals". The living was then a rectory, with the chapelry of Alvington and the rectory of Lancaut annexed.

Mike Salter, in his booklet Parish Churches of The Forest of Dean (1990), observes that the first mention of the church is in 1131 (as above); and by the 13th century it had become cruciform, with a tower on the north side of the nave, and a chapel on the south side. This in fact reflects its present appearance, so Kelly's description is not entirely accurate. The chapel was absorbed into a south aisle built in 1829 by John Briggs, and didn't become a chapel again until 1954, but the tower, rebuilt in the early 19th century, retained its position at the north east end of the nave, so cannot really be described as a "western" tower.

He also mentions fittings transferred from other churches - the pulpit, of c.1750, which was brought from Claycoton in Northamptonshire in 1966; and the screen of c.1860 which was brought from the Church of the Venerable Bede, in Sunderland.

The church was restored in 1859 by Henry Morgan of Tidenham. The Victoria County History series:
A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 10:
Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds (1972), pp.117-118 (Woolaston - Nonconformity) records that a gallery was removed from the church that year, and transferred to the Bible Christian Chapel at Woodside.

At Plusterwine, formerly a hamlet in the parish, are remains of a Roman camp. The name of the place is said to be derived from the Celtic "Plwy-ystarwain" - "the hamlet of the gushing forth". Plusterwine House was formerly the residence of the Woodroffe family, who - it is said - held it for the king during the Civil War. Near the existing house stand the remains of a former, surrounded with a still-traceable moat, and traces of a "large and good fireplace".

Kelly's Directory also tells a rather fanciful story about a piece of water formerly by the roadside near the church, known as 'The Wyvern's pond', "the name being probably connected with a forgotten legend of some fabulous monster"....

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here,
or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this
will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church is located at OS grid reference ST5867899344. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays)
Zoom out to 1:100000 to see County boundaries, and 1:500000 to show Parish Boundaries.

Reference

Places recorded by the Registrar
General under the provisions of the Places of Worship
Registration Act 1855 (2010) is available as a
"Freedom of Information" document from the website
What Do They Know.

You can specify either a Place, or OS Grid Reference to
search for. When you specify a Place, only entries for that place
will be returned, with Places of Worship listed in alphabetical
order. If you specify a Grid Reference, Places of Worship in the
immediate vicinity will be listed, in order of distance from the Grid
Reference supplied. The default is to list 10, but you can specify
How Many you want to see, up to a maximum of 100.

You can further refine your search by supplying other search terms.

You can specify entries with ('Yes') or without ('No') photographs.

You can specify a church or chapel's Dedication, to restrict entries to
those containing the term you supply as a dedication. So for instance, 'John'
would return 'St John', 'St Mary and St John', 'St John the Divine' &c.

You can specify a Street address, and likewise 'George' will return
George Place, St George's Street, George and Dragon, &c.

You can restrict the search to classes of Denomination. The exact denomination
is always shown in the results, although the search is for broad types. So you
can search for 'Methodist', but not 'Wesleyan Methodist' or 'Primitive Methodist'.
'Multi-denominational' includes Ecumenical Partnerships, and
'Other' means anything not covered by other broad classes.

Please note the above provides a search of selected fields in
the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship
Database on this site (churchdb.gukutils.org.uk) only.
For other counties, or for a full search of the Database, you might
like to try the site's
Google Custom Search, which includes full webpage content.

Further Information

This site provides historical information about churches, other places
of worship and cemeteries. It has no affiliation with the churches or
congregations themselves, nor is it intended to provide a means to find
places of worship in the present day.

For current information you should contact the place of worship directly.